Yesterday I ran the Baldwin Park Half Marathon – my 19th half and the longest distance I’ve run since February. A lot of poor decision making (on my part) went into this race, including but not limited to a three-mile run on Friday that I should have skipped, spending all day Saturday on my feet at EDC, drinking more drinks than can be counted on one hand, and skipping dinner.

But I’m a trooper, ya’ll. So when I got home Saturday night, I drank as much water as humanly possible, got a better-than-expected six hours of sleep, and ran a damn half marathon.

Michelle picked me up at 6:15 – right on time, I might add. *so proud* The girl is always at least a little late.

The race is only 15 minutes from my house. We even scored some major rock star parking by the start/finish line when Michelle went through a “road blocked” sign that was guarded by a police car. No fear, that one.

Once we parked, I realized I left my Garmin at home. I was also too busy sleeping in and forgot to make my standard PB&J, so I grabbed my next bad decision.

Cola flavor. Totally disgusting.

If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know I can’t eat anything with sugar (even natural) during a race. I ate one of those chews at mile 8, 9, and 10. Three is my limit. My stomach started churning after that.

I ran this race three years ago. It’s the same this year as it was then – small with a pretty course that is extremely familiar since it’s where I did a lot of my marathon training. I heard a few people complain that there wasn’t enough water on course, especially in the beginning miles, but I wore my new Camelbak so it wasn’t an issue for me.

Now for the race. Let’s just say that considering the night I had beforehand, it could have been a lot worse. So I am super grateful for the race I had. There was no timing on course, so I had no idea what pace I was running and I didn’t see a mile marker until mile seven, which was annoying. Michelle and I leap-frogged each other for those seven miles, but as we know, the only time I ever beat her in a race is when she’s pregnant or has bruised ribs. We high-fived at the turn-around and that’s when I lost her. I ended up walking a good 20 minutes throughout (or more, I stopped counting after a while) because I was completely pooped, my left leg felt super fatigued while my right leg was fine (??) and the shoulder pain that started during my first marathon came back. (< — read that race review if you enjoy pity parties)

Things that didn’t happen include me pooping, barfing, or dying. So I consider this a major win. I came in at 2:21:54, not even a personal worst so I’ll take it.

Epic Sports Marketing puts on this race and I notice they keep getting better and more organized each time. They even had a really good spread of fruit, bagel thins, rolls, peanut butter and Nutella at the end.

Nutella!

I can definitely feel that I haven’t run that distance in some time. My legs are tired. Squatting to clean out the bunny’s litter box definitely takes more effort. But I’m glad I ran this one because I needed to get the miles in and they aren’t going to run themselves.

Next up is the OUC Orlando Half Marathon on 12/7. I’m using that race as a training run as well and then maybe I’ll get more serious about my races in January and March. I mean, at the least I’ll try not to be drunk for them.

0 responses to “That Time I Drank a lot and then Ran a Race”

Seriously you are a trooper! Yesterday walking really started to become a chore when we were at DTD, after 2 days at EDC, so I can’t even imagine running a half. Glad you didn’t poo, barf, or die! Wooo! You’ll do better 12/7, I know you will!Becky S. recently posted…Crowdtap Truvia Brunch Hosted Party

Last Friday night I got way hammered for the first time in ages, I spent all of Saturday in a terrible hangover funk unable to eat or drink anything that I didn’t want to see again. Then I ran a 5k at 2AM that night (when the clocks turned back) and another 5k at 8AM. They suuuuuucked. Not my worst 5ks ever but not even close to my best, but since I didn’t vomit or pass out during either I’m considering them both raving successes.

I am seriously impressed with your performance, however on 12/7 I think you need to run a half while still intoxicated, not hungover. I always feel like I could run for a really long time after I have been drinking…

A couple other things… In the top picture are those two guys in the striped shirts together? Are they twins?
And those are some green bananas.Lindsey @ Happy or Hungry recently posted…Lest We Forget

Nope. I forgot all about food until it was time to leave! (And you know I hate when people say they forgot to eat. Because that is not a real thing.) I ate lunch around 1:00 and that was it. Unless you count a couple bites of a gyro and a few fries right before I left. So a couple bites of junk food?

After all that boozin’ and what-not, you still ran your race a minute and 12 seconds faster than I did mine >:(

I’d excoriate you for that except that I already got excoriated by someone else for publicly bemoaning my time when they came in five minutes after me, which would make me a hypocrite. Or as they’re called on the Internet, a hippocrate.

Nice! I got in a bike accident 2 days before a race a couple years ago so I was basically like “eff this” and drank many glasses of wine the night before the half marathon since I had major road rash on the side of my face and up the side of my body. The morning of the race was ROUGH. Luckily there was a port-a-potty at the first mile marker. By the time I got out it was only speed walkers left on the course so I decided to run really slow and enjoy the race (it was around a beautiful lake in the country). One of my funnest races even if it was my slowest (2:20 I think?) as I talked to a bunch of people and got to enjoy the beautiful scenery (part of it was on a really pretty dirt path right next to the lake).

Hello there! I'm Paula and I live in Orlando. I like to run and watch too much TV. I'm a lover of cupcakes and a hater of chia seeds, even though I've never tried them. I eat peanut butter out of the jar and I think Kristen Bell is my best friend.